Steam-engine



4 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

-W. GOLDING.

STEAM ENGINE.

' Patented Maya, 1884.

- INVBNTOR: Qflmm BY M WITNESSES ATTORNEYS.

N. PETERs. Phoioiflhngnpher Washinghll. D. c.

4 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

W. GOLDING.

STEAM ENGINE.

Patented May 6, 1884.

WITNESSES: INVENTOE:

%%z7 BY I ATTORNEYS N. PEI'ERS. Phulwulhn n hu. Washinglnn. mt;

(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 3. I W. GOLDING.

STEAM ENGINE. No. 298,081. Patented May 6, 1884.

INVENTOR:

' ATTORNEYS.

u. PEIEIIB, PMlo-Ulhogrw er. WW :1. a

4 (No Model.)

4 Sheets-Sheet 4- W. GOLDINGV 'STEAM ENGINE.

No. 298,081. PatentedMay 6, 1884.

INVENTOR Mkwa Q BY r ATTORNEYS.

N PETERS. Mb-Liflmqnubor. William DNC.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

XVILLIAM GOLDING, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANAI STEAM-ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 298,081, dated May 6, 1884:.

Application filed September 25, 1883. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM GOLDING, of New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Steam-Engines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention has reference to engines impelled by steam or other vapor, fluid, or gas capable of expansion, and in which it is proposed to cut off the impelling agent early in the stroke of the engine-piston and to work the remainder of the stroke by expansion, for the purpose of economizing the use of said agent, or, in other words, of obtaining an enlarged effect for a limited supply of it.

In expansion-steam engincs,-both of the single and compound kind, as ordinarily constructed and worked, for imparting rotary motion by means of a crank or cranks to a driving-shaft, there is often but little or no advantage in working the steam expansively, and where the load to be overcome is a constant one, and not of an elastic or varying de- G scription, such method of utilizing the steam,

except to a very limited extent, is generally impracticable, owing to the great variation in pressure at different points of the stroke, and which produces a want of uniformity in the rotary motion of the driving-shaft that even a weighty fly-wheel, where such is practicable, only partially corrects, and that very imperfectly so. To maintain a uniform speed of the rotating engine shaft or parts, it is necessary that the power be uniformly applied to each division of the circle described, and to obtain afull economy of steam-expansion with perfect uniformity of peripheral speed and against a constant load is the leading object of my invention.

To such and other ends, including the dispensing with, if desired, a fly-wheel to assist in producing said effect, and the avoiding of all dead-center action, although these are not the special objects sought to be obtained, my invention consists in a number of independent engines grouped into separate and distinct pairs and connected with progressively set or arranged cranks on two independent shafts which are geared with and serve to rotate a main driving or combined engine-shaft, whereby the initial and diminishing pressures of the steam or other impelling agent in the several cylinders, working'expansively, are made to produce a uniform rotative effect upon the main shaft, or, in other words, the several engines are caused to maintain the initial rotative effect by the application in regular order of the initiaband diminishingpressures, as hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims;

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 represents a plan of an organized system of independent reciprocating-piston cylinder -engines connected with duplicate many-cranked shafts in gear with an intermediate main or driving shaft in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same; Fig. 3, an end view thereof; and

Fig. 4 is a diagram in illustration of the arrangement of the several cranks of the independent engines and of the geared arrangement of the crank-shafts with a main or combined engine-driving shaft.

In the arrangement shown in the drawings two parallel vertical series of reciprocatingpiston cylinder-enginesthat is, four in each row or seriesare represented with their cylinders placed overhead; but said cylinders .may be arranged below, horizontal, or in any lar cylinders in an adjacent parallel row or,

series. These several cylinders are all mounted on suitable frames or uprights, B, on a common bed-plate, O, and supported by up right stays or rods b b. The piston-rods c c of these engine-cylinders may have blocks or cross-heads working in suitable guides, and are respectively connected by rods cl d with cranks e e e e e" e e e on independent par allel shafts D D. I The eight separate and distinct engines to which these several cylinders A A belong are grouped into four separate and distinct pairs of engines having their cranks c and e, c and 0 c and e, e and 0, set or arranged at right angles with each other, as more clearly shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings, the several cranks, in their aggregate, serving to divide the circles described by them into sixteen partsthat is, eight parts for the downstroke of their several pistons and eight parts for the upstroke thereof. The crankshafts D D are geared-as, for instance, by spurgearsf, f, and gwith an intermediate or combined engine-driving shaft, E,whieh is relieved from all lateral pressure in its journal-boxes h by the engines on the one side of it serving to depress said shaft, while the engines on the other side exert a like tendency to raise it. Thus the shaft Efloats, asit were, in its bearings. The journal-boxes i i of the crank-shafts D D should be so arranged and secured to their places as that on removing blocks provided for the purpose their gears f f may he slid out of mesh with the gears g on the main shaft E. The valves of the several engines are actuated by two eccentrics, 70 Z and is Z, for each engine on the shafts D D thereof, according to the direction in which it is required to drive the engines, each pair of said eccentrics being connected by their rods m a and m a to opposite ends of slotted reversing-link 0 0', up from which the verticallyguided sliding valve-rods pp project. The reversing-links 0 0 of the several engines on opposite sides of the main shaft E are connected by rods q, and these rods in their turn connected by rods 1' with arms 8 on a rockshaft, 15, that is fitted with a toothed sector, a, with which a screw, 10, operated by a hand wheel or crank, engages to collectively work the several valves for the purpose of starting, stopping, and reversing the several engines. Any other system of valve-gear, however, may be adopted, and the valves themselves may be of any suitable kind to work the steam expansively in the several engine-cylinders, the same either having a fixed or adjustable cut-off action, as desired. Ordinarily, however, where eight engines or engine-cylinders are used, as shown, the valves will be set to out off the steam at one-eighth of the stroke in each direction, whereby the initial force of the steam will be exerted on the main shaft E throughout its entire rotation and the power as derived both from the initial pressure of the steam and its expansion after being cut off will be uniformly applied to each division of the circle described by said shaft. This will give a full economy of steam-expansion with perfect uniformity of peripheral speed in cases where the load is a constant one. The several engines as thus combined and operating form but a single engine. \Vhen itis required to cut off at different points in the stroke, then the number of independent expansion-engines may be varied accordingly. Thus, when cutting off at one-fourth instead of one-eighth of the stroke, then four independent engines in place of the eight herein described will answer.

Having thus described my invention, \vhatI claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In expansion steam and other engines, the combination, with an intermediate driving-shaft, of a series of independent expansion reciprocating-piston engines,arranged in pairs on opposite sides of said shaft and geared or connected with it to rotate the same, the cranks in each pair of said engines being set at right angles with one another, and the cranks of the several engines being arranged progressively and uniformly, one in advance of the other, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

2. The combination, in the one expansionengine, of theintermediate driving-shaft, E, the duplicate parallel crank-shafts D D on opposite sides of said shaft, the gearsff 9, connecting the several shafts, a duplicate series in pairs, of reciprocating-piston expansion-engines having their cranks arranged, as described, progressively and uniformly, one in advance of the other, and a valve mechanism common to all the engines for simultaneously and similarly controlling them, cs-

sentially as described.

' WILLIAM GOLDING.

\Vitnesses:

H. M. HYAMS, Jas. TYMAN. 

